Oedipus the King - Book Report/Review Example

Client’s 12 February Oedipus is a great Greek tragedy; it has also been adopted in several plays and movies. It was predicted that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother and all this came true, there is clear evidence of incest in the tragedy. Oedipus is arguably the most important character in the tragedy; his sheer ignorance is quite conspicuous in the tragedy. He is really scared of the truth and does not want to acknowledge it but the reality was that he killed his father and in addition to this he also slept with his mother, it was a clear case of incest in the tragedy.

Jocasta’s character is also of prime importance, she is the mother and the wife of Oedipus. The readers get an impression that she is very rational and supportive; she supports Oedipus through and through. She also plays the role of a peacemaker when Oedipus has differences with Creon. The character of Jocasta is also fragile in more ways than one, she could not accept the truth that Oedipus is both her spouse and her child, it was really shocking but Jocasta could not come to terms with this truth.

She ended up killing herself and this goes to show that she was really fragile and incapable of handling the truth. The structure of the play is really impressive; emotions run high throughout the tragedy. The truth when it came to light shook almost all the main characters in the tragedy, the same truth also resulted in escalating the emotions of all the main characters. “Oedipus’s swiftness and confidence continue to the very end of Oedipus the King. We see him interrogate Creon, call for Tiresias, threaten to banish Tiresias and Creon, call for the servant who escaped the attack on Laius, call for the shepherd who brought him to Corinth, rush into the palace to stab out his own eyes, and then demand to be exiled.

He is constantly in motion, seemingly trying to keep pace with his fate, even as it goes well beyond his reach. In Oedipus at Colonus, however, Oedipus seems to have begun to accept that much of his life is out of his control.” (Analysis of Major Characters) To conclude it is fair to say that the tragedy was very well written by the one and only Sophocles, he plays with the emotions of all the characters in the tragedy and the same finally culminates into a great tragedy in the end, Jocasta takes her life away upon knowing that she had slept with her son and even Oedipus refrained from acknowledging the truth throughout the tragedy.

It is fair to say that the tragedy is a masterpiece written by the one and only Sophocles. Works CitedAnalysis of Major Characters (2012). Analysis of Oedipus. Web. Retrieved from: